Unchanging [h.s. au]

six

My body was pressed into the sand and my heart was beating a million miles an hour. I willed myself to be one with the sand and blend in seamlessly. I strained my ears to listen for the car. After a tense moment, I heard distant voices.

"Hey, Harry!" I recognized the voice as my dad's.

He was here. I swore underneath my breath and I shifted myself closer to the ground to remain out of his eyesight.

"Hey, Mr. Kingston, good to see you," the boy I just met spoke.

His name was Harry? A good sounding name for a good looking guy. Figures. Good looking people have it all.

"So, my daughter is visiting here and I was wondering if you've seen her around? Her name's Clara, she has blonde hair and is fairly tall. I think she was checking out the club's grounds and got lost."

This was it. Harry was going to rat me out and tell my dad where I was hiding, I just knew it.

"Well, I haven't seen anyone around here, Sir."

I almost jumped up out of my hiding place in shock. He was actually helping me? And lying to my dad's face to help me?

"If you see her at all, could you let her know I'm looking for her? We need to talk."

"Sure thing, Mr. Kingston."

There was a pause in the conversation, then my dad spoke. "Harry, why do you have two golf carts?"

Oh no. I had completely forgotten I had left my golf cart there. I mentally screamed at Harry to come up with a good lie to not make my dad suspicious.

"Oh, someone took one of the carts that wasn't fully charged. They were in the middle of golfing and it died on them so they requested a new one." Harry replied without hesitating.

"Well, they should have realized that beforehand to save you some trouble! Some people are not the most observant, I guess." My dad replied.

I just knew in the back of my mind Harry was smirking and thinking of me as not being the most observant.

"Yeah, I guess not," he said.

"Anyways, thanks for the help, Harry. I'll see you around!"

"Bye, Mr. Kingston!"

I waited and listened for my dad's car to leave. I was still lying against the sand and didn't want to push my luck by emerging from my hiding place too early. All of a sudden, I heard a laugh from behind me. I lifted my cheek from the sand and saw Harry looking at me from inside the golf cart he was driving towards me. He rolled to a stop at the edge of the bunker and I glared at him.

"Sorry, you just look funny lying in the sand bunker like that." he said.

I rolled my eyes and huffed in annoyance. "Why didn't you call out to me that he was gone or something?"

"Then I wouldn't have gotten the chance to see you clinging to sand like your life depended on it. That's a once in a lifetime opportunity."

I got up from the sand and readjusted my backpack. "Glad my crisis could provide you some comedic entertainment." I said angrily. I reached down, brushed sand off my legs and mumbled, "Jerk."

"What was that?" Harry said.

"I said berserk. As in, this is a berserk amount of sand on me."

Harry eyed me skeptically but didn't push the subject. "So, Clara," he drew out the syllables in my name as if trying to prove how cool he was for finding out my name without even asking me. "Now that I know what your name is, who your dad is, and  helped you avoid your dad, I think you at least owe me an explanation."

I didn't want to tell my life story to Harry, but figured I did owe him some kind of explanation for helping me.

I walked out of the bunker and slumped down into the seat of the cart next to him. "What do you want to know?"

"Why are you running away from your dad?"

I felt his gaze on me. I decided the less information I gave the better. "He was going to send me to a college prep camp."

Harry scoffed. "Is that the only reason why you decided to run away?"

"No!" I yelled defensively. Harry jumped at my outburst. "Sorry, it's just," I sighed. "He's going on a business trip for a few days and didn't want me to be alone so he signed me up for the camp without telling me."

"I don't know much about parenting, but you seem like you'd be old enough to be left on your own for a few days."

"That's what I told him." I looked over at him to see him still staring at me. His eyebrows were scrunched together and his pink lips were a serious line, as if he was trying hard to take in my story and understand the situation.

His green eyes were locked on mine when he reached out with one hand and slowly trailed his thumb across my cheek. His face was close to mine and his touch sent shivers down my spine. I sucked in a breath and my heart stopped beating. He dropped his hand too soon and his lips formed a smirk. "You had some sand on your face."

I felt my face flush with embarrassment for misinterpreting his actions. I looked away and out at the golf course. I had barely met the guy and he was already making me hormonally delusional. Why would he try to pull a move on me when all I've done is steal one of his golf carts and been exceptionally rude to him? Besides, I was sure there were many other more likeable and friendly girls at this country club he could flirt with.

"So, let me get this straight," Harry began. "To prove how responsible you are, you decided to run away. Makes sense."

His comment made me angry because I knew there was truth in it. If anyone thought about it, it was obvious that running away would go against the point I wanted to make and definitely not give me any responsibility points with my dad. But as usual, I had done the first thing that came to my mind without thinking about the consequences. Instead of admitting this to Harry, I sharply replied, "I don't need your sass right now. I should be going anyways."

"Wait," Harry said and quickly grabbed my wrist as I was stepping out of the golf cart. "At least let me help you find somewhere to go?"

My skin burned where his hand touched my wrist. He still held on and looked up at me expectantly, waiting for my response. He had done nothing but irritate me since I first talked to him, but I did need help finding my way around this massive place.

I slowly nodded my head and sat back down. "Okay."